Sadie Montgomery’s luck finally could be turning around. After defying her father’s wishes and going to art school, years of just barely making ends meet by selling portraits (including, yes, pet portraits) on Etsy, she has been named a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. If she wins, she will receive a hefty cash prize and the knowledge that she’ll probably never have to hustle for a portrait commission ever again.

For Sadie, the contest is personal. Her mother, also a portrait painter, was a finalist for the same contest back when Sadie was a teenager. But she died of a stroke just days before the competition. Sadie has spent her whole career trying to replicate her mom’s contemporary Norman Rockwell-esque style of portrait painting. Now she has the opportunity to honor her mother’s legacy --- and solidify her own career in the process.

"As you might imagine, the book is filled with clever twists and turns brought about by Sadie’s condition. Careful readers will likely spot at least some of them in advance, but that makes their resolution no less charming as a result."

But that’s before a freak car accident lands Sadie in the hospital, where a routine brain scan leads to the discovery that she has exactly the same kind of brain lesion that killed her mom. Her dad, a surgeon, insists that Sadie undergo the procedure immediately --- and she reluctantly agrees. After all, the doctors assure her that the surgery will only put her out of commission for a couple of days. She’ll still have plenty of time to complete her final portrait before the competition.

That is, until she comes to after surgery --- and realizes that she no longer recognizes her best friend, Sue, who was going to be her portrait subject. She knows Sue’s voice, as well as her smell, but her face is completely unrecognizable. It’s even unrecognizable as a face; it’s more like a collection of mixed-up parts that no longer make any sense.

What’s a portrait painter to do when she has (hopefully temporary) face blindness (prosopagnosia)? Well, she hopes the post-surgical swelling that caused it goes away as quickly as possible; she takes care of her adorable elderly dog, Peanut (since at least his face still looks fine to her); and she hunkers down in her tiny rooftop studio apartment to wait it out. But life seems to have other plans, and thanks to the people (and dog) in her life, Sadie finds herself thrust into multiple comedic situations. Although she fails to recognize friends and family members, she makes new acquaintances while trying hard not to reveal her somewhat embarrassing diagnosis. And since this is a romantic comedy, one or more of those acquaintances start to pique Sadie’s interest, with intriguing and surprising results.

In HELLO STRANGER, Katherine Center creatively explores what happens when love is truly (face) blind, and the romance she constructs is heartwarming. But equally important is Sadie’s journey of self-discovery. She compels herself to revisit her childhood relationship with the mother she misses so much. She also reevaluates her career choices and artistic style, and what that might look like going forward. As you might imagine, the book is filled with clever twists and turns brought about by Sadie’s condition. Careful readers will likely spot at least some of them in advance, but that makes their resolution no less charming as a result.

HELLO STRANGER paints a picture of a woman learning to see the world --- and herself --- in a whole new way.